Kids, Adults May Spend An Evening With The Stars

May 03, 1992|By Paula Lauer.

When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are . . . but you might want to pay attention to where you are next weekend because it`s time once again for the Elgin Public Museum`s fifth annual Evening With The Stars from 8 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Held in conjunction with Elgin School District U-46 Planetarium, the educational event is geared for kids, but according to Gary Kutina, planetarium director, ``the adults learn quite a bit about astronomy through the program as well. It`s a good time for everyone.``

Why, there will even be guides straight from the world of Star Trek, and astronomy lessons courtesy of Edmund Halley and Isaac Newton.

Weather permitting, Kutina will point out constellations such as Big Bear and Little Bear (inside of which you`ll find the Big and Little Dipper), Leo the Lion, Bootes, Hercules and Lyra the Harp. Kutina also plans to set up telescopes on the south side of the museum in Lord`s Park for an up-close and personal look at some heavenly bodies and deep sky objects, including the crescent moon, Jupiter, globular clusters and nebulae.

Kutina described a globular cluster (astronomically speaking, of course)

as an older, spherically symmetrical, compact group of up to a million stars held together by mutual gravitation. The clusters move in giant and highly erratic orbits around the center of the galaxy.

And a nebula is a generic term used to describe a cloud of stars or interstellar gas and dust located far beyond the solar system.

Kutina said that new stars are being born right now within the nebula Orion. Orion is visible in the southern sky late fall through early spring.

``If it`s clear, we`ll get a good overview of what some objects would be in the sky at this time of the year,`` he said.

Beth Cheetham, coordinator of the event, said, ``This year is going to be very exciting because we received a grant from the National Academy of Sciences, so there`ll be a special photo exhibit of astronomical phenomena besides the regular presentation.``

Cheetham said the exhibit will include NASA photos of all the planets taken during various space missions, plus star clusters, galaxies, the Milky Way with a meteorite going through it and, hopefully, some comets.

``The exhibit will complement the program,`` she said, ``so even if it rains and we can`t see some of these things through the telescopes, we`ll be able to see them in the exhibit.``

Besides an opportunity to peek at the final frontier, the evening promises to be entertaining as well.

and a Greek astronomer, Eratosthenes, who suggested the system of leap years and was the first to calculate, much to the amusement of his colleagues, that the Earth was round.

Cheetham said that rather than simply talking about their lives, the characters will talk about their discoveries in the context of the era in which they lived. So Halley will discuss what he believed about orbits, the comet (which, in layperson terms, is nothing more than a big, dirty snowball) will describe its life and future travel plans, and Newton will try to explain gravity.

The thought process behind the special theory of relativity (handy when, say, you`re trying to calculate how fast quasars are receding) will be presented by Einstein, and Maria Mitchell will offer advice to those wanting to break into the field of scientific discovery.

As Professor Photon, Kutina will give an astronomer`s viewpoint of light in terms of space and time.

``A lot of people don`t understand the relationship between light and time,`` Kutina said. ``So we`ll be pointing out stars and talking about how long it took the light to reach earth-20 years, 100 years, 140 years, and tie in with what was happening on earth (when those stars were born) to show that stars are very, very distant, to say the least.``

Cheetham said tours will be ongoing about every seven minutes. The tour takes about 45 minutes not counting the photo exhibit, and the route is designed to accommodate kids and strollers.

If it rains, the event will be moved to the main hall of the museum with two presentations by the characters, one at 8 p.m. and the second at 9 p.m.

Admission is $2 for kids 3 to 12 and $3 for those over 12. Reservations are strongly recommended and can be made by calling 708-741-6655. The Elgin Public Museum is on Elgin`s east side in Lords Park, which is accessible from Illinois Highways 25, 58 or 19.